1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a process cartridge used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus that uses an electrophotographic process performs image recording by uniformly charging a photosensitive drum, which is an image bearing member, to form a latent image based on selective exposure on the photosensitive drum, developing the latent image with a toner, which is a developer, transferring the toner image onto a recording medium, and applying heat and pressure onto the transferred toner image to fix the toner image on the recording medium.
Such an apparatus requires toner replenishment and maintenance of the various parts relating to the above-described image forming process. To facilitate the toner replenishment operation and maintenance, process cartridges have been developed. Specifically, the parts relating to the image forming process, such as the photosensitive drum, charging unit, and cleaning unit, are integrated into one frame member as a cartridge. This cartridge detachably mountable to the image forming apparatus body. In this process cartridge system, since the user can perform the apparatus maintenance by himself/herself, operability can be greatly improved. Consequently, such a process cartridge system is now widely employed.
In this process cartridge system, when replacing a process cartridge, the user needs to pull the process cartridge from the image forming apparatus body and push the process cartridge to a predetermined mounting position. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-8501 discusses a configuration in which a grip member that lets the user grip the process cartridge is provided on a frame member of the process cartridge. By providing such a grip member, the user can easily mount and dismount the process cartridge, so that operability is improved.
One example of a method for providing such a grip member on a frame member of the process cartridge is to form the grip member integrally with the frame member using a resin. In this case, the thickness of the grip member should be limited to the thickness of the frame member portion. This is because a grip member having a greater thickness is more difficult to mold into a desired shape due to the occurrence of sink marks.
During the mounting/removal operation of the process cartridge, since the grip member has to support almost the entire weight of the frame member side including the toner, the grip member needs to have a certain level of strength. However, depending on the design of the process cartridge, it may not be possible to make the grip member thick enough. In such a case, there may be an adverse impact on usability due to flexing in the grip member as a result of the load applied during the mounting/removal operation.